Is it possible not to have a good year for books? Thankfully, I don’t think this has happened to me yet, so here is a list of the books I enjoyed the most in 2018.

I have read more non-fiction than ever this year, partly due to shadowing the Wellcome Book Prize shortlist in March and April which I hope to do again in 2019. To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell won the official prize and was also our shadow panel winner – it’s a fun, informative and pretty terrifying book about transhumanism. , Yet while transhumanists are trying to avoid death at all costs, With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix explores the practical side of dying and what a “good” death can look like from her work as a palliative care consultant and this was a stand-out title for me this year. Another book I would happily press into the hands of everyone I meet is The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken which is an eye-opening account of the inner workings of the criminal justice system in the United Kingdom. And Strangers Drowning by Larissa MacFarquhar is a book I am still thinking about regularly months after I finished it mostly because the stories of extreme do-gooders are actually more unsettling than uplifting in many cases.

I’d not heard of Strangers Drowning but I very much like the sound of it.
I have a list of 31 Wellcome hopefuls for next year 😉 Most of those I’ve read and a few more I want to read. I can’t wait to see what makes the longlist!

Thanks for introducing me to so many good books this year 🙂 I’ve just finished Ghost Wall, I don’t often get disturbed by fiction, not since I was a teenager (cos now I’m an adult I realise it’s not real) but I did find this a difficult read – I really hated the dad like he was a real person. I was on tenterhooks at the end and cried a bit when I finished, I found it very emotional.

You mention a lot of books I don’t know much about, but I really want to read Sight, Normal People, and Heart’s Invisible Furies. That’s great you got to see Barbara Kingsolver! Thanks for adding to my TBR list, and happy reading in 2019!

I’ve only recently realized how many book-related awards there are out there, so am looking forward to reading more nominated books in 2019 – I’ll probably start with the shortlists of some of the bigger awards before moving deeper. So I’ll keep an eye out for the Wellcome Book Prize longlist!

Yes, there are so many book awards now – the Wellcome Book Prize shortlists tend to be more consistent than prizes like the Man Booker where it is often only one or two totles which really interest me,

I really want to read Convenience Store Woman and hope to happen across it. I read some really good non-fiction in 2018 and it dominated my end of year list, posted yesterday, although Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered stood out for me too.